Organic film is used in various industries as a coating for devices. A thin film of organic material may serve one or more of numerous purposes. For example an organic film may have dielectric properties and substantially reduce the conduction of electric current. As another example, an organic film may serve to seal a device from moisture or corrosive chemicals. One such organic film is Parylene. Parylene is a polymer of para-xylylene that is commercially produced in various grades. When Parylene is applied to a metallic substrate, it is typically done using a two-step process. First, a thin primer layer is applied to the substrate. Then, the Parylene is applied using a vapor-phase deposition process. In this process, a di-para-xylylene dimer is placed in a vacuum system and heated to form a para-xylylene monomer vapor. The monomer vapor is then allowed to pass over the substrate at a lower temperature. At the lower temperature, the monomer vapor polymerizes on the substrate to form a uniform film.
Once the organic film has been applied to the substrate, it is sometimes beneficial to remove the organic film from selected portions of the substrate. For example, it is known to remove a portion of an organic film from an implantable pulse generator to form an electrode for the generator. Common techniques for removing the organic film involve the use of lasers to ablate the film covering the entirety of the selected portions. These ablation techniques typically involve the use of quad yttrium-aluminum-garnet (YAG) laser systems or eximer laser systems. The laser systems typically used to ablate these organic films generally utilize ultraviolet lasers. Such lasers have been utilized because, for example, organic films such as Parylene may have high absorption rates for ultraviolet wavelengths. By absorbing the energy transmitted from an ultraviolet laser, the efficiency of the film ablation is improved. In contrast, organic films such as Parylene may be substantially transparent to visible and infrared light. Existing techniques utilizing quad YAG laser systems and eximer laser systems can be prohibitively expensive. In some situations, plasma etching systems with infrared lasers have been used for ablation. Although, using existing techniques, such plasma etching systems produce inconsistent results with excessive processing times. Such inconsistent results and processing times are often not conducive to a production environment.